STATE OF IGBO CULTURAL SOCIETY, AUSTRIA
Gentlemen, good afternoon!!!
It is with pleasure to have us all here today attending this meeting designed to rub minds together with hopes at the end of it, the proceeds would yield suggestions and may be find solutions aimed at alleviating the present pitfalls in ICS, Austria.
It is obvious to recall to memory that the ICS is facing a survival challenge, the worst since its inception. Most of us have served in various capacities to uphold the integrity and respect which the founding fathers have laid down for us and future Igbo generations yet to come in Austria. ICS should not be left to degrade to a laughing stock among other ethnics and immigrant communities.
Our present leadership suffers a kind of remission and acerbation in a grave sense. To my understanding, it does not have enough oxygen to ventilate the society. There is serious incoherence among the executive members of ICS and the fundamentals of leadership are scarce commodities.
Experience indicates that ICS lacks support from its members, there is dwindling interest, including poor attendances to meetings. Our constitution is often times tramped upon to get over pending issues.
Problems have also been sighted on members who have not mate up their obligations of paying their subscriptions to ICS and being a non-profit making organisation cannot survive without a strong financial base and steady fresh blood into its main stream. There are infatuations and disappointments from members who have been sidetracked and those whose benefits have been thwarted and remain unattended. There are discrepancies of in transparency in presenting financial accounts relating to proceeds made after ICS events. Members tend to loose perspectives and accountability on how their monies have been dispensed. People desert the society after loosing elections and divert interests of ICS to other subunits whose dates and meetings often times coincide with ICS´s.
Our youths have not been integrated into the main stream of ICS and marketing and management of present ICS is nothing to write home about.
It is now evident that the new yam festival and sports festival, the main arteries to sustain this society´s financial base may have been put on hold for this year 2012 due to some of the above mentioned pertinent issues.
Gentlemen, some of these points and a lost more have spurred us into action to call your attention to this despairing situation. We expect serious contributions in our deliberations today and may be find an exist strategy out of our present predicament in our ICS to be referred to the general meeting. We appeal to you to kindly open your hearts and evolve a synergy effects, because what holds us together as Igbos should overwhelm those personal feelings in our minds.
Your positive contributions in this meeting would help create a fertile platform for the younger generation of Igbos and those yet unborn to mitigate in the affairs of Nigeria and Nigerians especially in our host country in future or face the failure in achieving our aims and objectives of this noble society. In this case history would make his judgement, hopefully a positive one.
Thank you very much for your attention.
Domaghaizu.